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30-day guitar challenge, day 6: Reimagine open campfire chords

By Adrian Clark
( Guitarist )
published 6 August 2015

Shift those open chord positions for shimmering new voicings

Cadd9

Cadd9

30-day guitar challenge: For this week's chord challenge, let’s start off easy and have a bit of fun by taking basic ‘campfire’ chord shapes and moving them to different positions.

This is the standard open G shape, but shifted up five frets, creating a C chord. However, those two open strings don’t move, so we get a whole new type of chord.

Page 1 of 4
Page 1 of 4
A7sus2

A7sus2

Here, we’ve moved the A minor shape up seven frets, and the resulting chord is still a variant of A minor, but with a much more intriguing sound.

Alternatively, play this at the 6th fret for a nice D minor alternative.

Page 2 of 4
Page 2 of 4
Fmaj9

Fmaj9

The first chord shape most of us ever learn… the good old open C major. However, in this example it’s been moved up five frets to create a shimmeringly lovely F chord.

Page 3 of 4
Page 3 of 4
Dm7

Dm7

Finally, we’ve taken the basic D major shape and moved it up three frets, creating a D minor chord.

You can play through these four as a progression (or jumble them up any way you want). Compare with the standard C-Am-F-Dm version!

Page 4 of 4
Page 4 of 4
Adrian Clark
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